not to pick on BP but they had that terrible explosion South of Houston a couple years ago that exposed thier less than stellar saftey record. We are better, though none of us is perfect and yes tighter regs prob needed. Exxon raped alaska without the courtesy of a reach around.
yeah, I remember that.
Wow, BP is begging the US military to help. What a clusterfuck.
I've been out of the biz for a while, but I suspect that safety and containment in deep water, hasn't kept up with drilling technology. That drilling in deep water is on the leading edge of what is technically possible, and I doubt regulations and safety have kept up with it.
The take away lesson for me, is that they are going to have to re-evaluate the nature of the technology from a safety, engineering, and containment perspective on these deep water prospects. Obviously we still need to drill there, but at some point we're going to have to laugh off the Ronald Reagan puppets who've spent a lifetime chattering like chimpanzees that companies can be trusted to voluntarily self-regulate.
Growing Gulf oil spill prompts rethinking on offshore drilling
By Marc Caputo, Mary Ellen Klas and Craig Pittman
Miami Herald/St. Pete Times
TALLAHASSEE — The oil spill spreading across the Gulf of Mexico is sending ripples through Florida and national politics, giving Gov. Charlie Crist a reason to withdraw his support for offshore drilling.
After a 90-minute plane flight Tuesday above the spill, which was spreading in an 80-by-42-mile blob, Crist said, "Clearly it could be devastating to Florida if something like that were to occur. It's the last thing in the world I would want to see happen in our beautiful state.''
He said there is no question now that lawmakers should give up on the idea of drilling off Florida's coast this year and in coming years. He had said previously that he would support drilling if it were far enough from shore, safe enough and clean enough. He said the spill is proof that that is not possible.
"Clearly that one isn't far enough, and that's about 50 to 60 miles out. It's clearly not clean enough after we saw what we saw today -- that's horrific -- and it certainly isn't safe enough. It's the opposite of safe,'' Crist said
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/04/28/1602507/growing-gulf-oil-spill-prompts.html
Gulf oil spill 5 times worse than originally feared
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&tbo=p&...i=g5g-z2&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=c50e4df695f60f3